chw9989

Clear Lake City is not really anything special - just a master planned community that happens to be on the southeast side of town. Thinking of it as a destination is a lot like thinking about The Woodlands or First Colony as a destination. It's pretty much just a suburban neighborhood. The historical brochure linked below kinda sums it up (and it's pretty funny)

http://www.clccl.org/history.htm

If you really want to drive around out here (I live smack in the middle of the orig Clear Lake City, now annexed and known officially as 'Bay Area Houston' - ugh I hate that term) there are a couple of highlights I would show people visiting with me, I guess.

- If you take the Gulf Freeway (I-45 (north and south) beyond the southern edge of downtown), the big empty field-type areas between Scarsdale and El Dorado are what's left of the old Humble Oil (Standard of New Jersey's Texas affiliate, now ExxonMobil) Webster oil field. The field is for the most part produced out, but if you look closely you'll see the old wellheads scattered all over on both sides of I-45. There is an active exploratory-type derrick rig near Scarsdale and SH3, but I think this is some type of capping injection operation not an active exploration activity (the thing hasn't moved for months), but hey, it's an oil drilling rig, something most people really want to see on a trip to Houston, and it's near a road.

- Head over to Ellington (SH 3 and FM 1959) and take some pics of the big NASA branded jet that sits near the front entrance. I don't know the history of this particular plane but if I had to guess I would say it was one of the 'vomit comets' used to simulate weightlessness for the astronauts?? Someone jump in here maybe and correct me?? There's no visitor's center, but I kinda think that plane is neat. Also, some jets will probably take off and land while you're there, and that's always cool (NASA trainers, mainly, but sometimes you'll see the Texas ANG fighters running maneuvers)

- At El Camino/Egret Bay and Nasa Road 1, there is a little dive bar called the Outpost. Stop in, have a pint, and realize this is supposedly where the Apollo teams hung out for happy hour. There is tons of space/NASA stuff all over the walls.

- If you're into hiking, there is a nature preserve at Bay Area Blvd and Red Bluff (Armand Bayou Nature Center). Take PLENTY of mosquito repellent, but this is a nifty place for coastal marsh area birdwatching.

- I think the city of Houston runs a ship channel tour starting at the turning basin (heart of the city's east end). I've not done it, but check out the city's web site.

Alternate routes to Galveston - the first two take forever (on the order of 2-3 times as long as I-45 south), the last a really long time (it's pretty much about the drive - but they are different ways in!

- SH 225 east from IH-610 to SH 146, 146 south through Kemah and Texas City, connecting back to I-45 for the rest of the trip. This will take you through the industrial backbone of Houston. The tank farms and seemingly never ending stretch of refineries and petrochemical facilities is somewhat impressive, but visiting the industrial zone is not what most people consider tourism. This is still a big part of what makes Houston 'go' though (maybe not as much as in the past, but it's still a pretty big deal), and this also takes you close enough to the San Jacinto battlefield to see the monument from the road (on your left as you pass Battleground Rd)

- SH 288 south from downtown to Freeport, across San Luis pass to Galveston. This is a long one, but takes you through some pretty good examples of Texas coastal praries. Gets old, in my opinion. Texas coastal prarie can pretty much be summed up as flat, a little swampy, with scrub everywhere. Not exactly scenic. You can't unsee it!

- I-10 east, through Winnie, south to High Island on 124?? (you'll need a map for this one anyway), across Bolivar peninsula on SH 87 (make sure and drive on the beach - can't do that on Galveston island), across the ferry to Galveston island. This takes a LONG time, but crossing the bridge over the intracoastal waterway, which seems to appear out of nowhere, to the nifty little salt dome of High Island, is interesting after the miles and miles of flat swampy coastal prarie. The drive down Bolivar is, if anything, a good example of small Texas beach town, and the ferry ride is neat, you get to see some of the ship channel traffic. The wait for the ferry can be a bit long, especially on Sundays, so you'll need to plan for some serious drive time for this one.

Places to eat:

- Frenchies italian on Nasa Rd 1 at El Camino (across from Outpost) - another NASA type place

- Mamacitas Tex-Mex - Nasa rd 1 past SH3, before El Camino/Egret Bay. Kinda sits by itself. These people catered my wedding, great margaritas and fajitas.

- Alpine Brauhaus German - SH3 and Nasa Rd 1, in a little strip center (closed Sundays)

- Stingaree restaurant in Crystal Beach (bolivar peninsula). All you can eat fresh blue crabs (yum)

- Clary's seafood, Galveston - just behind the Galveston Daily News building on the island side of the causeway bridge. Not a shorts and flip-flops kind of place, but good seafood.

- Drive down to San Leon (exit from I-45 is marked) and have some Galveston bay oysters fresh off the boats. They are in season right now and are darn good with the 'cleansing' effect of Rita this past September helping to feed the beds.

- Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe, Galveston. OK, you can't really eat here but it is in the middle of Galveston's historic 'Strand' district and it's a good place to hear live music in the evenings. Lots of reasonable places to eat around.

- The Roadhouse - cajun, across SH3 from the entrance to Ellington field

So, there's stuff to do, just not much that's beyond the typical, see it from your car interesting.

This seems to be an old thread - but I'm an occasional browser of HAIF that has been inspired to post on this topic, because I think maybe I have useful info on what is going on with the facade project (at least so far), for whomever is curious and might read this later:

Full disclosure/disclaimer - I work for the company, and have officed out of the 800 Bell facility plenty of times, both during this project and before. My information about the facade project comes from an acquaintance who works for JE Dunn (the construction contractor doing the work), is the result of hallway conversation with fellow employees or my own logical reasoning. I am not involved in any way with the real estate development/maintenance groups within the company, so the below is just my own opinion, not XOM company policy/plans. I'm neither architect nor engineer, so some of this may be nonsensical.

That said . . . the so-called facade project . . .

Again, I'm no engineer, so I may be getting some of the detail wrong, but what I have been told by my contact at JE Dunn and by others working at 800 Bell that are familiar with the project: the rebar in the main exterior columns on the facade is rusting (inside the concrete somehow), and so the columns must be reinforced to ensure the long term structural integrity of the building. I've heard that this is expected maintenance because the building was never intended to last more then 50 years (that may be a load of c*ap, I don't really know).

The project is moving up floor by floor and doing something to these main exterior support columns (seems like only the corner columns) to fix this problem. Is it reinforcing with additional concrete? Adding structural steel? I don't know. But, that's why the curtains are necessary, since the project involves a lot of jackhammering and breaking of concrete. The curtains abate the dust and help deal with falling debris. Having worked on the floors where work is happening and trying to have phonecalls with people who do, I can confirm that LOTS of jackhammering is going on near the columns (VERY loud). There is more going on then just replacement of stone facade.

The project will last a few years, and will slowly move up the building. I think they are on floors 12-15 right now.

In terms of replacing the marble facade (I think actually it is limestone), I think that is also happening, but I'm not sure they are replacing it with aluminum (to match the sun shades) or matching stone. I'll check next time I am down there.

Interior design . . .

The interior of the building is indeed very choppy, the only large rooms in the facility are in the basement and in the rooftop (Petroleum Club ballroom). Most offices (save for the corners) are about 10x10, and are put together with some type of custom moveable metal wall panels. Incidentally, the same structural and interior design (including the wall panels) used at 800 Bell was also used for the Baytown refinery main office building, which I think was built around the same time. Exterior design of that building is MUCH different, as it is blast resistant (for obvious reasons)

A couple other little 'insider' factoids about 800 Bell, some are rumors among the employees, some I know for sure are true . . .

The cornerstone at the Travis/Bell corner of the building still has the 'Humble Oil and Refining Co' inscription

I believe the company owns the building and also the parking garage caddy cornered from the facility, which serves as the physical plant (AC, boilers, etc)

Downtown employees hate that the Exxon gas station in the corner of the parking garage was shut down shortly after the merger (99), as that was where most of us had our oil changes done. The station was shuttered because of poor financial performance that could not justify rebuilding once the old leaky storage tanks were removed.

The building is not connected to the downtown tunnel system because the corporation's former New York HQ was plagued with bomb threats in the publicly accessible tunnel areas under the building (complete rumor, I don't even know for sure if the former HQ was connected to any publicly accesible tunnel system at the time the 800 Bell building was constructued, or if there even is something like that in NYC, but this is something I've heard many times)

Employees (and I'm sure others) call the facility 'the radiator'

The cafeteria is run by Aramark catering now, and isn't nearly as good as it used to be.

Ironically, the coffee shop in the basement stopped selling the company's 'Bengal Traders' line of permium coffee and affiliated with Starbucks a few years ago. They came to their senses and switched back this past year (same time as the cafeteria switch)

Some think they are ugly, but the aluminum extensions on the building serve a few purposes:

(1) Serve as a windbreak (I've heard it's a critical design feature of this particular building)

(2) Act as sunshades for offices, conserving energy and making employee's lives easier in the east and west facing window offices

(3) Make for a reasonably safe exterior maintenance platform

On a new XOM office tower - -

I've been an employee for more then a few years, and there is always some type of rumor about XOM constructing a huge Houston campus to office EVERYONE in the metro. Most of those rumors circle around a large parcel of land the company (through I think Friendswood Development Co) owns (or used to own) near Conroe, and also on the old Humble oil fields near Webster (between 8 and the north edge of Clear Lake City). None of it has ever come to pass. We downtown employees heard lots of rumors about the company purchasing the 'new' Enron tower. Obviously that never happened. This is the first I've heard of a new office tower near 800 Bell. I'm not sure if the company actually even does own any of the surrounding city blocks - I've never heard that before. It wouldn't surprise me, but all but one (Bell facing side of building) have some type of structure on at least one of the corners already.

As I understand it, the company is doing the current repairs because the building will not otherwise remain structurally sound. That's it. Does that mean they are going to turn around and sell it and build another tower? I think that is unlikely. Again, my understanding is that the company OWNS the building, so vacating would either make XOM a landlord (directly or by proxy) or the building would have to be sold to some other party. Given the current slack in the downtown office tower market (as I understand), I doubt the company is at all interested in taking on either of these challenges anytime in a reasonable planning horizon. Regardless of what some secret sources might say (and I certainly am not privy to the real estate dealings of the corporation - see disclaimer - maybe others on this forum are), it just doesn't seem to make economic sense to spend a ton of money renovating a building you mean to sell or lease to someone else in the near term.

And hey - I kinda' like working in that place. It's the former HQ for one of the largest operating Standard Oil affiliate companies, and is the current HQ for some current XOM affiliate companies, so there are some very 1960s posh areas of the building (see Petroleum Club) . . . and some very 2000's posh executive floors. It's a neat place.

Hope this is helpful/interesting . . .